A Dangerous Ride for a Seattle Paperboy
A teenage carrier suffered a shattered leg while attempting to hop an electric streetcar in front of the White House building.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Albert Tennant, a 17-year-old newspaper carrier, suffered a severe injury on Monday evening while attempting to board a moving Grant street electric car in front of the White House. Hampered by a large bundle of newspapers, the boy missed the step and his leg was crushed by the front wheel. Because the car was moving slowly, it was stopped before the rear wheel reached him, preventing a fatality. Both bones in his leg were fractured and the calf was badly lacerated. He was carried into the White House, where Drs. Weed and Mitchell set the bones before he was taken home. He is not expected to lose the limb. Tennant is the stepson of Principal I. P. Rich of the South Seattle school.
“Hampered by a large bundle of papers, missed the step and had his left leg crushed by the front wheel.”
In 1891, the rapidly expanding streetcar system was the lifeblood of Seattle’s growth, but it frequently claimed limbs and lives as transit infrastructure raced to keep up with the city's ambition. Today, Seattle’s transit debates focus on light rail expansion and protected bike lanes, but the historical tension between pedestrian safety and high-speed transit remains a familiar civic friction.
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